<em>Arabidopsis thaliana</em> Seedling Cotyledon (VIDEO)
Caption
In this movie, a scanning electron microscopy image of an Arabidopsis thaliana seedling cotyledon (embryonic leaf) is shown as a cross section. As the movie zooms in closer, one can see that the cell in the center has begun to degrade some of its own chloroplasts. In one case, the degrading chloroplast is interacting with the central vacuole of the cell. This cotyledon is from a plastid ferrochelatase 2 (fc2) mutant that accumulates toxic singlet oxygen in chloroplasts. This strategy to degrade such damaged chloroplasts may be to help a cell avoid any further damage from singlet oxygen that can be produced during photosynthesis.
Credit
[Credit: Salk Institute/Matt Jones]
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